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Virgin adds 8 new channels to its UK TV Anywhere service including ITV, and brings 3 more to mobile

UK cable TV company Virgin Media has added 8 completely new channels to its online Virgin TV Anywhere service, and made 3 additional ones available for mobile users, bringing its total ‘live’ and ‘on-demand’ channel count to 75.

The new channel additions include ITV, ITV 2, ITV 3 and ITV 4, and are the latest terrestrial channels to be added after Channel 4 and Channel 5. Indeed, while BBC Worldwide is part of the offering (on-demand only), the main BBC channels have yet to be added.

Virgin TV Anywhere launched last November to rival BSkyB’s Sky Go service, serving up online and mobile access to TV shows and movies on the move – though it only supports WiFi connections. It launched with more than 40 channels initially, though it added another 21 to the mix in April this year.

The other new additions are: Bio, the Crime & Investigation Network (CI), History and History 2 (H2). While MTV, Nick Jr. and Nickelodeon were previously available through computers only, they are now also available to stream on mobile.

Virgin TV Anywhere is available via the Web for any customer, though only those on Virgin Media TiVo are able to access the service via their smartphone or tablet.

BSkyB (Sky) and Virgin are the main competitors for the UK subscription TV market. Sky launched its Sky Go service back in July 2011, after merging its existing Sky Player and Sky Mobile TV services. Initially it was only available on iOS in terms of mobile, though it finally hit Android in early 2012. Though Virgin is available through iOS devices, it has yet to land on Android – though this should be remedied later this year.